He floats the ouster move scenario, then denies it.

This is why Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder, aging Joma Sison, is no longer credible among his own communist groups, armed and aboveground.

Reacting to President Duterte’s statement of postponing peace talks, Sison said in a TV interview the commies no longer want peace talks and will instead join up with several movements planning to oust Duterte.

The other day, the spokesman for the Philippine military force confirmed the ouster threat of communist rebels is real, and this is based on documents obtained from surrendered members of the New People’s Army (NPA).

Yesterday, Sison denied such a plan, saying it is not true the CPP has a three-year plan to oust Duterte, from 2016 to October 2018, while pointing to the chiefs of Defense, Interior government, and the National Security Adviser as having “misrepresented the three-year plan of the CPP Central Committee to strengthen the CPP ideologically, politically and organizationally.”

Sison slammed these officials, saying “the so-called October ouster plan of the CPP, NPA and NDFP is a mere fabrication of Duterte and his militarist adjutants to carry out a fascist coup against the 1987 Constitution under the guise of pushing charter change for federalism.” He also accused them of “using the commies and their armed fighters as scapegoats for imposing martial law nationwide and anti-terrorism to suppress all critics, opponents and the broad masses of the people who oppose and fight Duterte´s reign of greed and terror.”

Sison is truly out of step with the times and the majority of Filipinos, but that’s what he gets for saying the CPP is now moving together with the critics of Duterte, such as the Catholic bishops and the Evangelicals and the usual yellows who have been salivating for a power grab while bringing up the martial law bogey again.

This really makes one wonder: are they afraid of martial law or is it a question of bringing up the public fear of martial law to egg Duterte into declaring martial law nationwide?

It is more likely these critics of Duterte want him to declare martial law nationwide since they are into reliving the Marcos martial law years. The communists, the clergy, the religious, the student activists, the “mosquito media” were those who all got together to oust Marcos and his government. They seem to believe a declaration of martial law nationwide will get the Filipinos angry and ready to join ouster moves.

What the commies, being out of touch with reality—as they still dream of the return of the old Marcos days, when Sison and his commies gained in popularity and strength, with even innocents led to slaughter by Sison—don’t get is the Duterte martial law is much too benign for anyone who is not member of a rebel force to fear.

Freedoms certainly have not been lost. There is no censorship in the media. Filipinos are free to travel. Protests are not being stopped by the authorities. What, then, are the critics crabbing about and injecting the martial law scenario when this no longer works under the Duterte government?

The military today appears to be credible when it discloses the commies have a plan to oust Duterte by October.

But even without that disclosure by the military, it was getting pretty clear what they want — the usual out of power and influence destabilizers, such as the highly political bishops and their priests; nuns who might as well shed their habit as they seem to do nothing but engage in political ousters of duly elected leaders though constant protests, criticisms, false accusations; the yellows, its crooks who fear being charged and detained for their crimes with their Ombudsman protector gone; the student activists whose brains are being dulled as they prefer to concentrate on their protests against government instead of their studies and more.

But if these groups think that Duterte can be ousted by October, they will be very disappointed because despite Sison’s claim there are elements in the military and police forces that are disgruntled, these so-called forces are evidently allied with the red, white and yellow groups. But they are hardly a force.

They should remember what happened to the military rebel leader, Antonio Trillanes, and the Magdalo partylister Gary Alejano, who believed they could topple then President Gloria Arroyo. So who in the military and even his claimed supporters followed him?

These Reds, Yellows and Whites and their anti-Duterte media, otherwise known as the yellow media, really should try another tack, like getting their candidates elected the democratic way, else, charges and detention await them.